"Nazi" is mnuch too kind a word to descride how he runs his shop. Genius is much too demeaning to describe his soup. Go there and put up w/ this jerk to taste his incredible soup. Seinfeld was kind to him...

The soup, I must admit, is absolutely amazing - you cannot imagine the layers of flavors he manages to come up with. Seinfeld had that part of it right, the taste IS to die for.However.....NY'er here, born and raised, and even for a "lifer" like me, the attitude is just too much. I've been there three times, and each time was more stressful than the last. I "get it" and haven't had a problem, but I've seen grown men reduced almost to tears by this guy. The honest assessment? The best soup I've ever had, but if you're faint of heart or think you'll be the one to "get away" with being brash/bold/funny to him, stay home!

However.....NY'er here, born and raised, and even for a "lifer" like me, the attitude is just too much. I've been there three times, and each time was more stressful than the last. I "get it" and haven't had a problem, but I've seen grown men reduced almost to tears by this guy. The honest assessment? The best soup I've ever had, but if you're faint of heart or think you'll be the one to "get away" with being brash/bold/funny to him, stay home!

I've seen the Seinfeld episode numerous times, but I figured the portrayal was a tad exagerated. I'm so curious to know what the SN says to reduce grown men to tears. Can you give any examples? And is it true that you have to follow the ordering protocol exactly or he won't serve you?

No matter how delicious the food, I would never allow myself to be abused... Well, but then again, I DO love great soup...

I've eaten there twenty or thirty times (it was closed for the past year or so) and never seen anyone reduced to tears but have seen men, women and even small children driven from the place w/o food after waiting in line for VERY minor transgressions of the rules. "Off to the LEFT...LEFT...LEFT...HERE IS YOUR MONEY BACK...NOW LEAVE!!!!!"

The soup is that good but this is one individual I would cross the street if he was on fire just to p*** on him. Not a nice person, probably had an unhappy childhood because he has some issues w/ other humans.

But the sucker can sure make a bowl of soup...just don't ask for french bread when he thinks you should have garlic toast.

But the sucker can sure make a bowl of soup...just don't ask for french bread when he thinks you should have garlic toast.

Well yeah, he certainly does sound troubled. I can't stand to see people treated badly, so not sure I'd even make it through the door, phenomenal soup or not. Plus, as PaulBPool said, I admit, I'm one of those faint of heart types. I can't eat if I'm stressed, and wouldn't enjoy it like I should. (Although, when Elaine tries the shrimp bisque offered to her by-- was it Jerry or George?-- and has to sit down, it's SO good, I always get a craving to try his shrimp bisque.)

Did I hear somewhere that his soup was going to be manufactured and marketed to the masses? Then I could try it in the relatively stress-free safety of home!

**Edited to add this interesting article about franchising. He doesn't seem to have any soups for sale at places other than his shop, just hats and shirts available on the website. Here's the franchise article:http://www.boj.com/articles/franchise/soup_nazi.htm

"All the soup will be made at a single plant in Piscataway , N.J. , and then shipped to the franchisees. They will reheat and sell it for between $12 and $20 a quart, depending on the soup and the location. (That's cheaper than his New York prices: At his Manhattan store, the seafood soup sells for $30 a quart.)"

This guy's soup is unreal, as is his personality. He'll do well w/ this new venture if he can maintain quality. The article relating that he cut the speaker cord from the radio at the plant where the soup is now being made makes perfect sense to anyone who visited his hole in the wall restaurant.

Fairly short wait in line for soup and bread which was usually very uneventful but occasionaly someone didn't have the money ready or held up the line and his wrath was unleashed. Anger amangement classes came to mind but I had seafood bisque in mind not the chef's mental well being. Crazy comes walking hand in hand w/ genius in his case.

This guy's soup is unreal, as is his personality. He'll do well w/ this new venture if he can maintain quality. The article relating that he cut the speaker cord from the radio at the plant where the soup is now being made makes perfect sense to anyone who visited his hole in the wall restaurant.

Fairly short wait in line for soup and bread which was usually very uneventful but occasionaly someone didn't have the money ready or held up the line and his wrath was unleashed. Anger amangement classes came to mind but I had seafood bisque in mind not the chef's mental well being. Crazy comes walking hand in hand w/ genius in his case.

Perhaps. Some people may be crazy enough to pay for his soup & attitude. When he opens his next "Soup Kitchen" down on the Gulf Coast and gives it away to the locals who need some help; perhaps I will try some of his "mentality".

Nobody will yell "No soup for you!" if you don't have your money out or move to the extreme left at the Original Soup Man, which opened last week at the food court, next to Ranch 1, at Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City.

The concession - the first of several slated to debut within the next few months - is under the franchise ownership of Rakesh Chadha. The man behind the soups, though, is Al Yeganeh, who was immortalized on a much-quoted episode of "Seinfeld."

Yeganeh has closed his Soup Kitchen International in Manhattan and now supervises stockpots at a facility in Piscataway, N.J., where the soups are made and frozen before being sent out to local franchises.

I sampled the five available one afternoon (the menu changes daily; prices run $4.49 to $7.99) and found each deep-down delicious. My favorite was a resonant chicken chili, which just edged out the tomato-zucchini, chicken corn chowder, shrimp bisque and butternut squash soups. Still, nothing matched the transcendent mulligatawny I recalled from the Manhattan venue.

Yeganeh is expected to pop by regularly at a soon-to-open corporate-owned store on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Next month, his soups will be sold - frozen, in 15-ounce heat-and-serve plastic pouches - at select supermarkets.

I've eaten there twenty or thirty times (it was closed for the past year or so) and never seen anyone reduced to tears but have seen men, women and even small children driven from the place w/o food after waiting in line for VERY minor transgressions of the rules. "Off to the LEFT...LEFT...LEFT...HERE IS YOUR MONEY BACK...NOW LEAVE!!!!!"

The soup is that good but this is one individual I would cross the street if he was on fire just to p*** on him. Not a nice person, probably had an unhappy childhood because he has some issues w/ other humans.

But the sucker can sure make a bowl of soup...just don't ask for french bread when he thinks you should have garlic toast.

How does he get away with being so rude in a city of [often assertive] individuals?

Hasn't he pissed off the wrong person yet (gang member, wise guy, or hothead), gotten smacked around the soup counter, and been dunked headfirst in a toilet or a pot of his own bisque? If he acted like that around here, someone would catch him closing up and take out his knees in the parking lot to teach him basic manners.

I've eaten there twenty or thirty times (it was closed for the past year or so) and never seen anyone reduced to tears but have seen men, women and even small children driven from the place w/o food after waiting in line for VERY minor transgressions of the rules. "Off to the LEFT...LEFT...LEFT...HERE IS YOUR MONEY BACK...NOW LEAVE!!!!!"

The soup is that good but this is one individual I would cross the street if he was on fire just to p*** on him. Not a nice person, probably had an unhappy childhood because he has some issues w/ other humans.

But the sucker can sure make a bowl of soup...just don't ask for french bread when he thinks you should have garlic toast.

How does he get away with being so rude in a city of [often assertive] individuals?

Hasn't he pissed off the wrong person yet (gang member, wise guy, or hothead), gotten smacked around the soup counter, and been dunked headfirst in a toilet or a pot of his own bisque? If he acted like that around here, someone would catch him closing up and take out his knees in the parking lot to teach him basic manners.

That is such a good point. It makes me wonder, too, why someone hasn't clobbered him by now. Maybe he has a bodyguard. Or I guess his soup is so good, people will put up with his nastiness, even in NY.

The logistics of his place are such that you'd have to be an Olympic high jumper to get to him and they have really sharp knives in a pro kitchen. He's a jerk of monumental proportions, much worse than protrayed on tv, but his soup and bread are like manna from up above. Genius can be forgiven for certain cultural flaws, ie zero people skills and no observable good personality traits.

Hey could be worse...your sister could marry this jerk. She'd be rich but Thanksgiving dinner is an occasion I would miss if he came.

When I call Soup Kitchen international at his original location on 55th & 8th, there is a message that says that he will post on his website a week before reopening. I know that there has been a similar message for the last year or so, but does this mean that he is going to open eventually or that he is just messing with people?

When I call Soup Kitchen international at his original location on 55th & 8th, there is a message that says that he will post on his website a week before reopening. I know that there has been a similar message for the last year or so, but does this mean that he is going to open eventually or that he is just messing with people?

The original store is not reopening, only the franchises. The first franchise in Manhattan just opened.

quote:

More soup,less Nazi

'Seinfeld' tyrant skips opening of new shop

BY JONATHAN LEMIREDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Soup for you! And you, and you, and you.

The man who inspired the famed "Soup Nazi" on "Seinfeld" has lent his name - and his legendary recipes - to a chain of soup stores, and the first in the city opened on E. 42nd St. yesterday, drawing hordes of hungry New Yorkers.

"The soup's great, but the harsh system is different [than the show]," said Dominick Iacoviello, 27, who works at a nearby technologies firm and waited 40 minutes for soup. "I guess it's a kinder, gentler Soup Nazi."

Al Yeganeh's amazing soups and remorseless line policy at his former store on W. 55th St. were captured on the hit TV show, which put his lobster bisque - and trademark cries of "No Soup for You!" - into pop culture.

That notoriety fueled yesterday's line, which stretched to almost 100 deep at lunchtime after forming at 1 a.m., seven hours before the city's first Original Soup Man store opened near Fifth Ave.

Yeganeh, who did not show yesterday, closed his original store in 2004 to prepare for the launch of the Soup Man chain, which opened its inaugural restaurant in Princeton, N.J., last month.

Two more are planned in Manhattan - one on Trinity Place, the other in Rockefeller Center - by the end of the year, with more to follow in Brooklyn in early next year.

"He makes the best soup in the world and we want to get it to as many people as possible," said Soup Man presidentBob Bertrand, who presented a $5,000 check to Yankee great Reggie Jackson, spokesman for food charity City Harvest.

Though some potential customers on short lunch breaks bailed on the line and instead ate pizza next door, most soup nuts were thrilled with their $4.95 small cup of vegetable soup or $10.95 large bowl of crab bisque.

"Considering that it's now mass produced, I'm impressed at how good it is - it holds its own to the original store," said Bruce Horowitz, 49, a former faithful patron of Yeganeh's defunct store, as he sipped his mulligatawny.

"But knowing how much [Yeganeh] hated the Seinfeld portrayal and the attention it brought," added Horowitz, of Brooklyn, "I'm surprised he sold out."

I saw the same article, hilldweller. I wondered if someone else made the post. It sounds like it is not quite as expensive as it was originally believed to be. Looks like you can get something for under $5 -- but the most popular (and likely, most expensive to make) stuff will be more.

One of those "I remember when" posts. I was first introduced to the "Soup N" in 1988 or '89, well before Seinfeld. People at my work (Channel 13-PBS) raved over the soup, but many were banished for not adhering to the rules. We actually did briefly call him the Soup Nazi until we discovered he was from Israel - definitely NOT a kosher title. We then dubbed it "Angry Soup" and referenced the "Angry Soup Man." And when he closed for the Summer we said he'd gone on vacation to Hell.

Following the rules was one thing, but actually geting in good with him was another. One Production Assistant in our department managed to get his attention. Once he'd found out that Jess had lived on kibbutz in Israel, Jess could do no wrong. Jess pretty much had his lunches paid for him afterwards, as most people were willing to pay him to go get soup rather than deal with the potential wrath and embarrasment.

The soups were delicious then, and if you were good and got your fruit and bread (his choice) it was one of the better lunch values in the area. But, they all have the same base, and after a while I found the seafood bisque tasted like the chicken noodle and I couldn't eat any more.

Let me assure you that if this clown acted as boorish he is reputed be, he would not make it to day two in my part of Ohio. As a matter of fact, he would not make it to the next customer. All that wonderful soup would get poured into a dark smelly body cavity and then corked with his head. Here, one NEVER belittles another in public without consequence.

**Edited to add this interesting article about franchising. He doesn't seem to have any soups for sale at places other than his shop, just hats and shirts available on the website. Here's the franchise article:http://www.boj.com/articles/franchise/soup_nazi.htm

Well, as a soup fanatic, I was interested in giving this a try so just a tip. Order 5 containers of soup to get the most bang for the buck on their shipping. It defaults to $9.95 for up to 5 containers (so, shipping for one container of soup is $9.95..and $9.95 is also the cost for shipping 5...then it moves to $19.95).

Either way it is a bit high for shipping but will report back on the soup ;-)

Well, as a soup fanatic, I was interested in giving this a try so just a tip. Order 5 containers of soup to get the most bang for the buck on their shipping. It defaults to $9.95 for up to 5 containers (so, shipping for one container of soup is $9.95..and $9.95 is also the cost for shipping 5...then it moves to $19.95).

Either way it is a bit high for shipping but will report back on the soup ;-)